Huntsville gazette., 1887-01-08
part of Jersey two kinds Of trained coon

silently as ferret, and as relentlessly.
There was another who followed the
chase to music of his own making, and
who let you know at every step that he
was getting there. There was mingled
with the spookish methods of the still
hunter an element of greater certainty
that you would get your coon than
there was with the melodious system Of
| the dog that voiced his eagerness for
the final fray but the style of the latter
put more tingle in your blood and filed
you with buoyant expectancy that
seemed to lift you up and away from
the presence of every thing but the dog
and the coon. hidden in the depths of
the forest shadows, but both there, and
both knowing that the supreme moment
was drawing nigh. There was some-
thing weird and uncanny in following
the still dog in all the windings and
turnings of the gloomy woods at night.
He crept among tangled brush and deep
ravines, climbed abrupt knolls, and
worked his serpentine way down into
deep hollows--turning, doubling, shift
ing, crossing and recrossing his track,
like the labyrinthine tracings Of a ship 8
course-silent as the night around him,
stealthy as a twilight shadow. His
very silence brought him to the prize.
As the trail of the unsuspecting coon
became warmer, the noiseless pursuer
grew still more cautious, until, the
game in sight, he rushed upon it like
an avalanche, and the pent-up music Of
his soul went forth in one fearful howl
of triumph, and the surprised and
frightened coon knew that his nights
were numbered. But it was different
with the dog that gave tongue as he
hunted. He made the music in the
night-not the silyery treble of the fox
hound, floating down from the hills in
the frosty air and drawn out in sweet
cadenza by every willing echo, nor yet
the mellow bass of the deerhound,
swelling over the ridges, clear and far
sounding as bugle note, but a pleas
ant though staccato song of his own,
half bark, half bay, a cheerful mingling
of melody with business.
The baying coon dog always had a
better nose than his close-mouthed
brother, and he needed to have The
coon, smart as he was, never knew
when the silent dog was on his track
until it was too late to bring to his pro-
lection the many wiles and stratagems
that he at once resOrted to when the
cry of the other dog rang out on his
trail. 1t was then that he maneuvered
to throw false scents, and the brook
and the bramble, the hill and the hol-
low, We're all impressed in his service
in his race for life: and it was then that
the baying coon dog Of the old time
came out strong. Step by step he nn-
ravelled the tangled and well-hidden
scent, constantly sounded his wild
challenge to the coon to do his best
until t-.e hun. animals repertory OF
wiles was exhausted, and, accepting
the inevitable, he threw stratagem to
the dogs, SO to speak, and climbed a
tree. When this stage of the hunt was
reached the dog knew that the nuts
that particular coon had laid by for
winter use would never be disturbed by
him, and he sent the hunter intelli-
gence to that.effect by instantly chang
ing his bay to loud, quick bark. Then
the hunter picked his way to the spot.
Lying close on leafless branch, his
rolled-up body plainly outlined in
moonlight, or less distinctly if the
night is lit only by the stars, lies the
cunning coon, outrun, his strategy use
less, his tactics unavailing. A load of
heavy shot will fetch him down. If he
is not killed by that or the fall, he will
give the dogs lively fight while it
lasts, and so good a fighter is a coon,
pressed to defend himself, that many q
scoon dog, with the best kind of an
|.opinion of himself, has been unable to
join in the chase for days after an en-
counter with one that had come out of
the process of untreeing in tirst-class
trim for the subsequent proceedings.
The decline and fall of the coon hunt
seems to date from the late war, when
many other of the old-time sports and
pastimes went out of fashion. The
race of trained coon dogs gradually be-
came extinct. There are coon dogs
and coon hunters yet..+to be sure, but
the dogs are not the coon dogs of our
fathers, and the hunters are generally
shiftless. hand-to-mouth members of
the community. who follow the calling
not for wholesome and exciting sport,
but to obtain an important means of
subsistence. | know some good citi-
zens, sportsmen, who occasionally steal
out of crisp November evening, and
follow coon as best they can with the
means at hand. but they would be
ashamed to have it known!-N. I. Sun.
The Population of Spain.